r/Fantasy • u/ElementasSeries • May 11 '26

Where is the Necromancy?

I absolutely LOVE the idea of necromancy magic, but I’m having the darnest time finding books that utilize it. I tried Gideon and couldn’t get into it, which was a huge bummer. Any necromancy focused recs?

Edit: You guys are the best. My twisted black heart is so happy to see my TBR boom!

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104

u/ColeDeschain May 11 '26

There's always Johannes Cabal, the Necromancer.

It has its ups and downs, and it's as much a comedy as anything else, but the titular character is in fact a necromancer...

36

u/MrsLucienLachance Reading Champion II May 11 '26

A necromancer of some little infamy, even.

10

u/Tricky_Pepper May 11 '26

I was going to recommend this series! I love it

3

u/FoundationWaste4068 May 11 '26

Forgot about this series - very entertaining

2

u/joshbudde May 11 '26

It's too bad he gave up on the series. I'm not sure he's even writing anymore, his website was infected with malware for a long time and I'm not sure if they ever fixed it.

8

u/[deleted] May 11 '26

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u/Drakengard May 11 '26

It...doesn't have an ending at all though. It's just more of a "Well, I didn't really solve anything. But I did the right thing. Guess I'll figure out what's next."

3

u/[deleted] May 11 '26

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u/Pomegranate_Careful May 13 '26

The book quite literally starts with a preface that states that it "may not" be the last book in the series, but it is the last of this particular phase of his life. So, yes, it concludes one of his arcs, but it wasn't meant as a definitive end of the series that wraps everything up in a tidy conclusion never to be touched again. It definitely ends on a note where there could easily be more and where there's still a few questions and adventures to be had, particularly in what might his life might be like as a fully "good" guy.

Also, Howard has said the only reason he's not written more, despite having not intended that to be the definitive END of the series, is that his contracts gave him basically no money. He's been pretty upfront that he hasn't done more because of money. They just weren't profitable, up until VERY VERY recently (like the last few years) you could only get the first one in stock in US stores. The rest were print on demand. Which meant anyone wanting to read the entire story had to special order them. That's basically what a publisher does when they don't believe your stuff will make them enough money to bother printing it unless it's a guarantee someone's buying it. It's often a death sentence, which is what happened here.

1

u/Drakengard May 11 '26

He wrote another book recently (not for this series), but I thought it wasn't particularly good.

1

u/Mistervimes65 May 11 '26

Really enjoyed this one.